Wouldn't want De Sciglio personally. I just don't really see Italian players working for us, Zambrotta was one of the best fullbacks in the world when he came, and whilst the team was in decline, his style of play simply did not suit us at all. If we must get rid of Alves, I personally would try sign one more experienced defensive fullback, and one young fullback who can grow, unless we have one in our youth teams, but sure we all would have heard of him by now if that was true. Zabaleta comes to mind as the experienced one.
I'm not really enthusiastic for any of the centre backs mentioned really. Hummels is too similar to Pique (better go for Subotic if we want to raid Dortmund for CB), David Luiz is superb for Brazil and was great for Benfica in the past as well but is erratic as hell. Balanta is a massive gamble, and Benatia, well, i'm wary because in Italy the midfields tend to protect defenses more so whilst I don''t see Roma play much, and his stats are impressive, I worry that he'd be exposed more in our system.
Don't think we need 'a different type of midfield player' to start really, on the bench we do, but spending 50 million plus on a bench player is pointless. Its a tired old debate really, back in 2006-2008 people said the same about us needing a different type of attacking midfield player to the standard Xavi/Iniesta/Deco type, and Lampard was a name often dropped by the press. Whilst circumstances have changed, with Xavi and Iniesta both being notably younger back then, I don't think this calls for the need of a new type of midfielder to start with. Cesc is fine, Iniesta has 2-3 more seasons in him injuries permitting, and We have Samper, Denis, and Rafinha who all can play CM and all look promising. We don't need in my eyes a different midfielder to Cesc, Xavi or Iniesta, but we do need midfielders to finally replace Keita and Yaya, but thats something better served looking at people like say Imbula from Marseille for Yaya or Fernando from Shakhtar, hell, even Guarin from Inter for Keita, than Vidal.
We need a striker, that much is a given. Personally think we are one good CF a way from matching what I think was our most potent forward line in terms of being able to mix it which was Messi, Eto'o and Henry. Messi needs to move to a new position, if not completely on the right again then at least behind another forward. We need to go back to 2008-2009 mould I think, which was in my opinion our greatest ever team in term of squad depth and quality of football, even thogh it seems our 2010-2011 team gets more press plaudits.
So Personally, my In's would be:-
1 x RB in mould of Zabaleta
1 x CMs who can fit Keita and/or Yaya's profile in midfield
1 x ST in the Eto'o mould.
1 x GK
1 x CB
Promote Denis and Sergi Gomez, bring back Rafinha
TOTAL = 5 New Players, 2 extra from Youth, one Loan Return
Outs
Song,
Valdes,
Puyol
Tello
Deulofeu (loan again)
Alves
TOTAL = 6 out
GK - ter Stegen, Pinto, Oier,
RB - Zabaleta, Montoya
CB - Pique, Bartra
CB - Benatia, Sergi Gomez (4th CB)
LB - Alba, Adriano
DM - Busquets, Mascherano, Jonathan
CM - Cesc, Xavi, Denis
CM - Iniesta, Guarin, Rafinha
RW - Messi, Cuenca
ST - Aguero, Alexis, Bojan
LW - Neymar, Pedro
Those are just the players I would like to see personally in fantasy world, but think the idea in what position to buy is sound as a rebuild. For me at this point its not about the names so much as it is about getting what is required down, I mean when you look at how we revitalized ourselves in 2008 Summer, we bought in Hleb, Caceres, Keita, Pique, Pinto and Alves, whilst also promoting Busi. Wouldn't say any of them outside possibly Alves were top-top quality at the time, but they served a need, and renewed the squad. We need to do that again, focus more on the right player for the right price and not massive names just for the sake of it.
I'm not really enthusiastic for any of the centre backs mentioned really. Hummels is too similar to Pique (better go for Subotic if we want to raid Dortmund for CB), David Luiz is superb for Brazil and was great for Benfica in the past as well but is erratic as hell. Balanta is a massive gamble, and Benatia, well, i'm wary because in Italy the midfields tend to protect defenses more so whilst I don''t see Roma play much, and his stats are impressive, I worry that he'd be exposed more in our system.
Don't think we need 'a different type of midfield player' to start really, on the bench we do, but spending 50 million plus on a bench player is pointless. Its a tired old debate really, back in 2006-2008 people said the same about us needing a different type of attacking midfield player to the standard Xavi/Iniesta/Deco type, and Lampard was a name often dropped by the press. Whilst circumstances have changed, with Xavi and Iniesta both being notably younger back then, I don't think this calls for the need of a new type of midfielder to start with. Cesc is fine, Iniesta has 2-3 more seasons in him injuries permitting, and We have Samper, Denis, and Rafinha who all can play CM and all look promising. We don't need in my eyes a different midfielder to Cesc, Xavi or Iniesta, but we do need midfielders to finally replace Keita and Yaya, but thats something better served looking at people like say Imbula from Marseille for Yaya or Fernando from Shakhtar, hell, even Guarin from Inter for Keita, than Vidal.
We need a striker, that much is a given. Personally think we are one good CF a way from matching what I think was our most potent forward line in terms of being able to mix it which was Messi, Eto'o and Henry. Messi needs to move to a new position, if not completely on the right again then at least behind another forward. We need to go back to 2008-2009 mould I think, which was in my opinion our greatest ever team in term of squad depth and quality of football, even thogh it seems our 2010-2011 team gets more press plaudits.
So Personally, my In's would be:-
1 x RB in mould of Zabaleta
1 x CMs who can fit Keita and/or Yaya's profile in midfield
1 x ST in the Eto'o mould.
1 x GK
1 x CB
Promote Denis and Sergi Gomez, bring back Rafinha
TOTAL = 5 New Players, 2 extra from Youth, one Loan Return
Outs
Song,
Valdes,
Puyol
Tello
Deulofeu (loan again)
Alves
TOTAL = 6 out
GK - ter Stegen, Pinto, Oier,
RB - Zabaleta, Montoya
CB - Pique, Bartra
CB - Benatia, Sergi Gomez (4th CB)
LB - Alba, Adriano
DM - Busquets, Mascherano, Jonathan
CM - Cesc, Xavi, Denis
CM - Iniesta, Guarin, Rafinha
RW - Messi, Cuenca
ST - Aguero, Alexis, Bojan
LW - Neymar, Pedro
Those are just the players I would like to see personally in fantasy world, but think the idea in what position to buy is sound as a rebuild. For me at this point its not about the names so much as it is about getting what is required down, I mean when you look at how we revitalized ourselves in 2008 Summer, we bought in Hleb, Caceres, Keita, Pique, Pinto and Alves, whilst also promoting Busi. Wouldn't say any of them outside possibly Alves were top-top quality at the time, but they served a need, and renewed the squad. We need to do that again, focus more on the right player for the right price and not massive names just for the sake of it.
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